HEllo Ardith,   
      
   On Wed 2039-Feb-02 23:42, Ardith Hinton (1:153/716) wrote to Richard Webb:   
      
   RW>  I haven't read a piece of sheet music of any kind now   
   RW>  since the '80's  and then it was part of the process   
   RW>  of my wife and I copping something from library of   
   RW>  congress braille music collection to our own, which   
      
      
   AH>           Thanks for the insight!  It hadn't occurred to me that   
   AH> music could be written in Braille... but why not??  Years ago there   
   AH> was a gal in our community band who recorded the music, then took it   
   AH> home & memorized it.  I am aware that (with the exception of   
   AH> classicists, who seem to think the highest accolade they can give a   
   AH> student is "s/he copied it perfectly") others may not learn the same   
   AH> way.  As it happens our conductor likes to experiment from time to   
   AH> time.  Folks such as yours truly who can read the music & watch the   
   AH> conductor simultaneously are quite comfortable with his modus   
   AH> operandi.  It didn't work for her, though, because she was blind.    
      
   YEp, braille music isn't on the familiar staff, and   
   instruments such as the piano which can play chords have   
   their own particular notation styles, depending on the   
   instrument.  For piano and organ folks one learns about   
   intervals and scales in the process of learning music,   
   because that's the way chords are notated.  Guitar chords,   
   etc. are written such as cm7 for a c minor 7, bdim for a b   
   diminished, etc.  OFten if I'm looking for a lead sheet of a popular tune and   
   wish to learn it I'll look at the guitar   
   chords and the single note melody line, as I have to think   
   hard sometimes to remember the complex interval signs etc.   
   if there's also a piano part written, but often all that's   
   written is the chord notation and the melody line along with words.   
      
   Strange thing was back in my younger days often by the time   
   I'd received my sheet music transcriptions, unless I did it   
   with somebody else dictating I'd already memorized the part   
   by just attending rehearsals .  My mother learned to   
   read sheet music enough to do the dictation whileI   
   transcribed to braille, with resources she could call on the phone such as the   
   band director to decipher an unfamiliar   
   symbol when needed.   
      
   AH> If I'm expected to memorize or play by ear or copy what somebody   
   AH> else has done, I feel like a fish out of water.  She probably did   
   AH> too.    
      
   INdeed, as do I often, can do it, but it isn't quite as   
   easy.  I guess that's why I'm a jazz person .   
      
   AH>           Now you've got me wondering about that C/W gig in   
   AH> Lethbridge....  ;-)    
      
   WAs fun and interesting for a few days.  I couldn't quite   
   get used to the fact that if I had a drink, even   
   nonalcoholic while on break and wished to take it to the   
   bandstand I couldn't do that, one of the wait staff had to   
   bring me my drink on the bandstand.  OTherwise, was just   
   another 6 day stand in another town basically .   
      
      
   Regards,   
              Richard   
   --- timEd 1.10.y2k+   
    * Origin:  (1:116/901)